Glen Echo Park

Last week, President Obama announced “Every Kid in a Park,” a new effort to welcome four million fourth graders to national parks and public lands during the 2015-16 academic year, and we are thrilled.

It’s been a fun-filled month of making plans, setting park resolutions in motion, and getting the year started off on a great path! Here’s what we were up to this month, just in case you missed any of the exciting developments.

January 17 is known as “ditch your New Year’s resolution day,” but that doesn’t mean we should forget our adventurous ambitions for 2015! By this point in the first month, it’s easy to slide back into old habits and resort to complacency instead of keeping our eye on the goal. But that doesn’t have to be the case.

For more than 50 years, our friends at North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) have tracked Santa’s holiday travels around the globe. NORAD staff, family, and friends volunteer their time to personally answer phone calls and emails from children and people everywhere about Santa’s whereabouts. It’s great fun for the entire family!